The next morning after a hardy breakfast and feeding her tames, Sam made her way back into her workshop. She stood looking at her new stock. She hadn't had the time to make too many new weapons and armor, but she only wanted to test them out at first.
Making her way to her break room, she sat on the couch and opened her profile window.
{Operator: Samantha "Sam" Foreman
Age: 18
Species: Human
Tier: Purple
Level: 15
Experience: 8920/29280xp
Health Points: 350/350HP
Mana: 450/450
Mana Control: 25
Mana Regeneration: 45m/sec
Stats:
Strength (S): 27
Agility (A): 25 (+2 Ring) = 27
Perception (P): 25 (+10% [2.5]) =27.5
Vitality (V): 35
Intelligence (I): 25
Wisdom (W): 45
Charisma (C): 27
Luck (L): 11
Available Stat Points: 37
Available Skill Points: 100
Primary Class: Beast Tamer LVL 1
Tamed Beasts 4/4
- Sunblaze LVL 2
- Tempest LVL 3
- Ignite LVL 3
- Syndrome LVL 6
Beast Bank Level: 5
Beast Bank Balance: 1069/1600xp
Active skills:
Beast Command LVL 1
Bond Healing LVL 1
Passive skills:
Animal empathy LVL 1
Keen senses LVL 1
Secondary Class: Enchantress
Active Skills:
Enchant Item LVL 1
Stat Enchantment LVL 1
Passive Skills:
Enchant-opedia LVL 1
Runic Inscription Index LVL 1
Support Class: Master Crafter LVL 3
Active skills:
Item Creation lvl 4
Accessory Weaver lvl 3
Human-forge LVL 3
Mana hands LVL 3
Weapon and Armor Smithing LVL 1
One Size Fits All LVL 1
Passive skills:
Material manipulation LVL 4
Waste not, want not lvl 4
Efficient Crafting LVL 3
Material Identification LVL 3
Recursive Inspiration LVL 1
Mana-Forged Crafting LVL 1}
"Alright, skills first."
{"I'll condense this for you to minimize notifications."}
"Thanks."
{Active Skills: Item Creation has leveled up to LVL 5, Human-forge has leveled up to LVL 4, Mana Hands has leveled up to LVL 4, Weapons And Armor Smithing has levels up to LVL 2, One Size Fits All has leveled up to LVL 2. SKP used: 8}
{Passive Skills: Material Manipulation has leveled up to LVL 5, Waste not, Want Not has leveled up to LVL 5, Efficient Crafting has leveled up to LVL 4, Material Identification had leveled up to LVL 4. SKP used: 8}
"Hmm, that recursive inspiration is going to be a bitch to level. How do you level inspiration?" Sam said frustrated.
{"Well… I find inspiration comes to those who are wise and intelligent…"} Jarvis hinted
"Is that your subtle way of saying if I up my Wisdom and Intelligence it'll help?" Sam said smirking.
{"Certainly couldn't hurt."}
"Well, on to the stat points then."
With her 37 STP Sam divided them as so. She added twenty to Intelligence bringing it to 45 and with Wisdom already nearing 50 she simply added another five doing so. Her Mana pool and regeneration rate were at 500 and 50/second respectively and her mana control 45. This now allowed her to give her now four sets of mana hands a set of tasks they could preform independently. Watching one of the blue pairs of hands clean and tidy the shop, while another brought resources to her bench for future use, she checked out the Enchant-opedia to see what she could now do.
The skill, like the runic inscription index, manifested a glowing book floating infront of her. She had expected a window, but this was much better. In book form, unlike a S.I.S.T.E.M. window, she could keep it open off to the side while she worked.
Most of it was blank. Only the available enchantments for her level were available. However the first couple pages were a table of contents of sorts so she still had a bit of a preview of what was to come. She was not disappointed.
Weapon Damage, Armor Reinforcement, Mana Efficiency, Elemental Affinity were just some of the categories.
[Category: Basic Enchantments]
Sharpness I–III – Increases weapon cutting power.
Reinforcement I–III – Boosts armor durability.
Durability I–III – Extends gear lifespan, reduces wear.
Piercing I-III - Increases weapons ability to pierce through reinforced hide, skin and scales.
Stat Boosts I–III – Minor boosts to Strength, Agility, Perception, Vitality.
… ]
There were an assortment of enchantments available. Stage one enchantments offered a 10% increase in power of the weapons base. Weapons have a predictable powerbase. Good quality Knives had a base of 10, Dagger 15, Arrows 25, Swords 30 depending on size they increased of course. Quality was also a factor. Common weapons were too low quality to hold an enchantment so they were usually regulated to be used by the non-integrated or as training weapons. Good quality was the usual baseline. An increase of quality meant an increase of power, as well as an increase of enchantments it would hold.
What Sam wasn't aware of yet was the fact that she had many more Basic Enchantments then normal. When most people started the Enchanter/Enchantress class they were at level ten, so their Intelligence stat was usually around 15-20 at the very max.
If their base Intelligence stat started at ten and every level up they used one STP on Intelligence, they could reach twenty by the time they selected their class. However their other stats would greatly suffer. This was often why enchanters and mages were so fragile compared to other classes. They needed their stats in wisdom and intelligence to be high enough to not only control their skills but to fuel them too.
Starting an enchanting class with 45 intelligence allowed an assortment of enchantments that wouldn't be available to the average person just starting out.
"First things first, I need a few tools and mana ink."
In the first few pages of her Enchant-opedia, it listed the typical tools needed. They were pretty straightforward. She'd need a scribing pen to etch the rune needed for her enchantment into what she was enchanting, then mana ink and a brush to trace the rune and give it power.
Obviously she could skip the etching part for soft items like clothes. A simple charcoal pencil could be used for the initial rune, though after more practice she could simply bypass this step and paint the rune directly to the fabric.
After using her Enchant Item skill, the rune would sink into the item and practically disappear. It would only leave behind a subtle glimmering outline.
Sam spread her tools across the workbench—chisels, brushes, her scribe pen, and a charcoal pencil and manifested the two thick ethereal tomes: the Enchant-opedia and Rune Inscription Index. The armor wasn't just about stitching leather to mithril; each piece had to be enchanted individually. Or at least that was her plan.
She flipped open the Enchant-opedia, running her finger down the page until she found the entries she needed. Durability, Reinforcement, Protection, Autoclean, Chameleon, the enchantment Unobstructed View was perfect for her hood… Each had its corresponding rune. She cross-referenced with the index, tracing the curves and strokes of each sigil until the shapes were burned into her mind. Each one had to be precisely drawn. Each stroke a particular thickness and the order of which line drawn first had to be followed.
Next came the mana ink. A glass vial of finely pulverized beast core dust shimmered like crushed gemstones on the bench. She pinched it into a mortar, mixing it with the deep purple pigment of Nightshade petals and a viscous amber oil—Starwhale Bloom Oil, purchased through the S.I.S.T.E.M. store at a price that made her wince. The oil smoked faintly in the light, carrying the faint scent of ozone. Perfect binding quality.
She ground the mixture slowly, coaxing it until it thickened into a liquid that shimmered faintly when stirred. The ink was alive with potential, ready to carry mana.
Taking up her scribe pen, Sam leaned over the first piece: a strip of Shadowleaf Cougar leather. She had first cut the piece of leather into the proper shapes. With steady hands, she etched the rune for Durability into the underside of each scale, shallow but precise. Once the mark was clean, she dipped her brush into the ink and painted the rune, each stroke glowing as the mixture seeped into the engraving.
Her hand hovered over the finished rune. She whispered, "Enchant Item," letting her mana flow into the work. The ink flared, the rune burned for a heartbeat, then settled into the leather as though it had always been part of it. When she bent the hide, it flexed naturally, but the fibers felt stronger—reinforced by magic.
She repeated the process across her other gathered resources. Ash-Boar leather, etched with Reinforcement. Thunderstorm Bear leather, Protection. The runes shone with reddish sparks and faint blue cracks of light, echoing the beasts' original strengths. The Thistlehog leather drank the enchantments greedily, its rune pulsing a stubborn glow before stabilizing.
Mithril was trickier. The metal required more forceful engraving, her scribe pen biting harder into the surface. She etched the Protection rune carefully, then painted it in with the shimmering ink. When she cast Enchant Item, the metal scale hummed faintly, resonating like a struck bell before going still.
It was grueling work. Hours passed as she worked through each resource, checking and rechecking runes against the index, ensuring every inscription was clean before committing with ink and mana. A single crooked line would waste both material and ink, and she couldn't afford mistakes with mithril.
At last, every leather hide and mithril scale gleamed with faintly glowing runes, the enchantments sealed within. Sam leaned back, exhausted, brush hand shaking slightly.
Sam exhaled slowly, surveying the workbench. Every piece lay ready: mithril scales, each engraved with runes and painted in shimmering mana ink; hides of Ash-Boar, Thunderstorm Bear, Shadowleaf Cougar, Thistlehog, and Swiftbunnie—all inscribed, all pulsing faintly with enchantments sealed within. The Pinesap Fox belt strip gleamed with its strange tackiness, while the softened Thistlehog cloth for her under-armor glowed with its autoclean sigil. Her cloak and hood was made of dappleflax a grassland plant with soft, shimmering fibers. She had easily created the lightweight, breathable fabric (comparable to linen) on her new tailoring loom. It flared once before folding itself neatly, runes glowing faintly as the Chameleon enchantment took root.
It had taken hours. Her hands ached from engraving, her head from the steady drain of mana each time she invoked Enchant Item. But now came the part she both dreaded and loved—the moment of creation.
She laid her palms flat over the spread of resources. "Alright," she whispered, voice low and steady, "let's make you whole."
"Now," she murmured, rolling her shoulders, "time to turn enchantments into armor."
"Create"
Mana surged from her, a familiar warmth rushing through her veins as she invoked her crafting class ability. After a quick chat with Jarvis, she learned she didn't necessarily need the workbench. If she already knew what she was making, the skill would work regardless of whether she was at the bench or not.
The air thickened, shimmering like heat haze. One by one, the components lifted from the table, hovering in the air between her hands.
The mithril scales slid neatly into the waiting leather housings she had cut, the runes aligning perfectly as if guided by an unseen hand. The cougar bracers sealed themselves with a hiss of shadow, the boots shimmered as Swiftbunnie hide tightened into form. The Ash-Boar and Thunderstorm Bear leathers twined together across her chest piece, red-gray and blue-black merging like storm and fire.
The pauldrons shuddered as the Thistlehog quills clicked into their hidden housings, concealed beneath scales until pressure would release them. The quills, though—that had been the trickiest part. She had them fitted into little mithril housings, designed to spring forward when pressure pushed against her shoulders. They'd pierce, but only shallowly. And shallow wounds weren't enough. Poison was the obvious, but maybe unconventional choice for something so close to her own skin.
Sam had debated, chewing her lip, then sighed and pulled up the S.I.S.T.E.M. store interface. A quick search later, and she had found it. Venomous Essence Vial (Common). While a common resource it still packed a punch.
The vial materialized in her hand, liquid emerald swirling ominously. She thumbed through her Enchant-opedia again, finding the sigil for Toxin Conduction. With her scribe pen, she inscribed the rune at the base of each quill housing, then uncorked the vial and dripped venom into the grooves. The metal hissed.
Dipping her brush into the mana ink, she traced the venom-filled lines, watching them glow green as if the poison had come alive.
She pressed her palm against the pauldrons. "Enchant Item."
Mana rushed out. The quills pulsed once, faint green light racing along their spines before vanishing. To the eye, they looked ordinary, hidden beneath the scales. But she could feel the new weight to them, a sinister promise.
"Perfect," she muttered with a grim smile. "A shoulder check you'll never forget."
Sam's mana poured out faster, and the air sparked with threads of light. Every rune she had inscribed flared at once—Protection, Reinforcement, Durability, Autoclean, Chameleon, Unobstructed View—a chorus of light and power binding the disparate pieces into a single whole.
She grit her teeth, sweat beading on her forehead. It always came down to this last push—the system weaving her effort into reality. If her prep was sloppy, if the runes had flaws, the armor would collapse into ruined scraps.
The glow peaked. For a moment the workshop was filled with light and the low hum of magic. Then the sound snapped away, leaving silence and the faint smell of ozone.
Before her on the bench rested not a pile of parts, but armor. Her armor.
Scales gleamed with muted menace, each leather type lending its own subtle hue and texture. The pauldrons curved sharply, quills hidden but waiting. The cloak shimmered faintly before blending into the shadows behind it. The belt sat perfectly fitted, her dagger already nestled at her side as though it belonged there.
Sam sagged back against her stool, panting, but smiling. "Worth it," she said hoarsely. "Every drop. One last skill and I'm done." She activated 'One size fits all' and the whole set glowed. When she tried everything on, it all self adjusted for the perfect fit. She was ecstatic with the result.
{Ding! Quest complete! Sentimental Armor Reached Structural Limitations.
Rewards: +100XP per piece (9 pieces = 900xp)
Enchantment: Woven Bond (Armor Passive, Upgradeable)
When wearing the 3 piece set (Chest piece, Greaves, Bracers)
+5% Defence
+5% Speed
+1 to Charisma stat.
When wearing 5+ piece set
(Chest piece, Greaves, Bracers, Helm, Boots) Gain an additional
+5 to Strength stat
+2 to Intelligence stat
+10% durability for any weapon you craft
When wearing the full set gain an additional +10 to all stats (Excluding Luck)}
{"Congratulations Sam. I must say it's quite the eye catching set. Worthy of all your hard work."}
"Thanks Jarvis."